Month: March 2008

Beer: Tap Into the Art and Science of Brewing (1998) by Charles Bamforth is my selection for the March Book-A-Month Challenge: Craft. Creating beer is certainly a wonderful human craft and Charlie Bamforth examines it from historical, global, and scientific angles. In a sense this could be a textbook for a science course on brewing…

I’m a fan of Mike Hayes from the BustedHaloCast so I read his book Googling God: The Religious Landscape of People in their 20s and 30s (2007). This thin volume is basically a guide for ministers to young adults in the Catholic Church, although I read it more as a young adult looking for ministry….

The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus (2006) by Amy-Jill Levine is like Jesus Before Christianity in that it puts Jesus in a historical context of his time. Levine is a Jewish scholar with a lifelong interest in Jesus and Christianity. Her simple thesis for this book is that Jesus…

Revelation is a difficult book of the Bible to understand so I turned to The Rapture Exposed: The Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation (2004) by Barbara R. Rossing for some insight. I was particularly intrigued by the subtitle since Revelation is known for his scary, albeit symbolic, imagery. First order of business…

Jesus Before Christianity (1976, 2001) by Albert Nolan, O.P. is a book which removes the lens of Christianity from looking at the historical Jesus, and provides the context for the times in which Jesus lived, walked the Earth, and taught His people. Interestingly, Nolan minimizes Jesus’ supernatural acts and even his divinity, but in a…

Saints Behaving Badly: The Cutthroats, Crooks, Trollops, Con Men, and Devil-Worshippers Who Became Saints (2006) by Thomas J. Craughwell is a collection of short essays of Saints who lived rather unsaintly lives. Usually this was before their conversion, of course, but sometimes even after turning their lives to God we see that even the saints…

Hell’s Abyss, Heaven’s Grace: War and Christian Spirituality (2006) by Lawrence D. Hart refers in the title to the paradox within each of us that we can be drawn to violence and hatred or to the peace and grace of God. The basic question of the book is whether or not a Christian can support…

I have to confess that I never before completed reading a novel by Jane Austen, something unheard of in our Austen-obsessed society. I started Pride and Prejudice (1813) for my Senior English class in High School, but I didn’t finish it and then the school year ended and I was off to college where I…

Cry, The Beloved Country (1948) by Alan Paton is my Around the World for a Good Book selection for South Africa. This is probably the most famous South African novel and maybe too obvious a choice, especially since I try to read the most contemporary books possible. This novel actually precedes apartheid as well as…

I’ve notice that I’ve put up at least one post pretty much every day this year (mainly because of my Ireland/Britain travelogue). I’m getting to the point where thinking of my blog, keeping up with my blog, and writing in my blog is becoming a bit too mentally taxing.So I’m going to take a break,…

On 2 March 1998, I went home. Sort of. I had to wake up early to make sure I made it to Heathrow Airport on time so I got promises from my French dormate Nadja and a Danish woman that they’d wake me before they left for work. I was so keyed up I didn’t…

On the first of March 1998, I made a rail journey across London to the borough of Greenwich. I had one day left on my Britrail pass so I figured I may as well use it. Part of the adventure was a transfer at Clapham Junction which claims to be the busiest station in Britain…

flockof: liberalsarecool: odinsblog: Paul Ryan once argued that “liberal government programs give people comfort, but not dignity.” And to justify cutting Welfare and defunding food programs, Republicans disingenuously equate having the basic necessities needed to live — like food — to dignity. Following that logic, are we to believe that wealthy people some […]

theadventureto-be: longingforus: #SignedByTrump Only a few of the quotes that the President Elect, Donald Trump, has said about women.After many many hours, my photography final is FINALLY finished. It has been deleted off Facebook and Instagram, so I’m hoping it can stay up on Tumblr. oh, this is good